


Songs of the Lost

by dustkeeper



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Inappropriate Times for Karaoke, Nevengers Bonding, Neverland (Once Upon a Time)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 08:23:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8438389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dustkeeper/pseuds/dustkeeper
Summary: When Pan plays his pipes, some of the Nevengers can hear it. The only way to combat annoying music is with more annoying music.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bit of mindless fluff. I'm sorry if you disagree about who can/can't hear the Pied Piper's song, but this was just for fun, anyway.

When he was dropped back into the Land Without Magic in the nineties, Neal Cassidy had soon picked up a fondness for certain genres of music. He stole mixtapes to record rock songs from the seventies and eighties. His favorite song was "Only You" by Yaz, and Emma would groan whenever he played the song in their yellow bug for the hundredth time. Overall, he could listen to any kind of music with little complaint. It was interesting to see how different instruments and arrangements were from the Enchanted Forest, or even the Darlings' home from earlier on in the century. He'd belt out cheesy pop ballads or showtunes and bob his head to songs meant for dancing and parties. He'd enjoy any kind of music except for music with flutes in them.

No matter where he hid on Neverland during his days trapped on the island, he'd be able to hear Pan's pipes playing softly in the wind, calling for all the lost children in all the realms. Even after finding a family worth sacrificing his freedom for, Baelfire was still a lost boy. Nightmares of his father letting him fall into the portal alone would haunt his nights. Vague memories of a mother who left him echoed at the sight of the pirate ship off the coast. Whenever Pan played his song, however, the pain was the worst.

Neal could only hope Henry wasn't hearing the same song he heard even now as a grown-up reconciled with his father. In fact, he had hoped he was the only grown-up to hear it in their ragtag group of fairytale heroes. He was wrong.

"Anyone else hear that music?" Emma asked after a minute of the pipes.

"What music?" Snow White couldn't hear a note. Neal supposed that even though she lost her parents at an early age, she never felt like a lost girl. She at least knew her parents wanted her, or so it had said in Henry's storybook.

Regina huffed. "Of course _you'd_ be spared from this racket."

"I don't hear anything, either," Prince Charming spoke up. He frowned at the thought of an impending threat from Pan.

"That's because only a certain kind of person can hear it," Neal's father explained. "It's how Pan recruits his lost boys. Only those who feel unwanted or unloved can hear it, and when they do, they are called away to Pan's sheepfold."

Both Emma and Regina seemed to will with all their might for their faces to stay neutral. Emma didn't want to upset her parents, even though her claiming to feel like an orphan had already done the trick. Regina just didn't like feeling vulnerable to anyone.

Hook and his father heard the song, too, that he knew. Snow's and Charming's faces softened with sympathy and guilt. He knew they hadn't wanted to give Emma up, that they did love and want her. Emma finally knew this about her parents, too, but it didn't change the decades of loneliness and doubt she'd already lived through.

Neal was used to feeling sorry for himself. It had become a terrible habit after the centuries of hell he'd lived through. At some point, it doesn't even hurt anymore: he just felt numb about it now, especially after seeing his father and Emma again. It was walking with a group of equally-angst-ridden misfits that relit the flame of righteous anger in his chest. He was sick of people having to live in their past, to revisit sore memories they'd worked so hard to hide away, especially just because Peter Pan felt like brushing up on his flute skills.

He was done being Pan's pawn. He was going to save Henry and return to Storybrooke, where he would finally have a real home.

" _Looking from a window above, it's like a story of love. Can you hear me_?" he sang softly.

"What are you doing?" Regina hissed. "You'll give away our location! Pan will hear!"

"Let him hear," Baelfire said. "If we have to listen to his pipe recital, he can listen to the Enchanted Forest karaoke night."

Emma smiled, a beautiful sight in comparison to the pained expression that had just left her features. It spurred Neal on.

" _Came back only yesterday, I'm moving farther away._ " In a foolish moment of bravery, Neal turned to Regina, holding out his arm as he belted out dramatically, " _Want you near me_!"

"Stop it!" she slapped his arm away from her. The Charmings had begun to smile at that, too, and Hook smirked.

" _All I needed was the love you gave_ ," he continued, unfazed by Regina's rejection.

" _All I needed for another day,_ " Snow White joined in, a pleasant surprise for Neal. True, they were cursed in 1983 America, but the thought of the fairytale princess listening to Yaz hadn't occurred to him.

" _And all I ever knew_ ," they chorused, grinning at each other like old friends, " _Only you._ "

" _Come on, Em, help us out_ ," Neal urged Emma, who rolled her eyes at his antics and remained silent.

The pipe song had left their minds.

" _Sometimes when I think of her name, when it's only a game_ ," Neal and Snow continued, " _And I need you. Listen to the words that you say, it's getting harder to stay when I see you._ "

Charming looked as though he would have joined in had he known the words. Hook grinned, remembering long nights of song shanties with his old crew. Emma was smiling with that glint of mischief in her eye he always loved on her, back when they were two idiots in love without a care in the world.

"If we're ambushed because of your terrible singing voices, I'm siding with the Lost Boys during the fight," Regina informed them.

Neal and Snow exchanged devious glances. They moved to either side of the Evil Queen, serenading her like they were in a Backstreet Boys music video. " _All I needed was the love you gave! All I needed for another day! And all I ever knew - only you_!"

Regina pursed her lips, valiantly attempting to ignore the two morons flailing dramatically around her. If any of them had seen Rumplestiltskin's face, they would have seen a small smile grace his lips.

"I think I prefer the pipes," the queen muttered, crossing her arms. They were going to get them killed!

Neal suddenly changed tunes, deepening his voice comically, " _You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch_."

Even Emma burst out laughing at that, the tense atmosphere the island had hung over them dissolving in a brief moment of peace, and Regina was forcefully reminded of how much of Neal was in Henry as she allowed a small twinge of her lips.

"Hey, the pipes stopped," Emma pointed out with a smile.

"They couldn't even compete with our singing," Neal said triumphantly. "Hey, when we get back to Storybrooke, we should start a band."

"I don't mean to brag," Charming piped up, "but I'm pretty good at the tambourine."

Emma finally hit the milestone of feeling embarrassment because of her father.

"Pop can drum a beat," Baelfire offered, finding perverse joy at the discomfort that fell upon the Dark One's face.

"Now that I've got to hear," Regina said with a smirk.

"Not if you mind me using your skull, dearie," was the imp's reply.

They didn't find Henry until days later, but it felt a little like they won a battle that night. Neal felt victory at the thought of getting Yaz stuck in the Evil Queen's head, at least.


End file.
